The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in Math. The lowest is 23% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on O C Johnson School
O C Johnson School is a regular public elementary school in the Yuma Elementary District, serving students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It sits within the city of Yuma, a sprawling, car-dependent desert community where agriculture, the military, and tourism drive the economy. Yuma is a key trucking hub at the California and Mexico borders, and its population swells noticeably with winter visitors each year. The historic downtown along Main Street provides a civic and cultural core, but most of the city’s large footprint is residential and commercial spread out across a wide area. O C Johnson is located in that broader residential fabric, not in the downtown core.
The school enrolls a small student body for its pre-K–5 grade band. The student population is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with a modest share of white students and very small numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch was not available, nor were counts of students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent would need to ask the school directly about the level of economic need and the extent of specialized support services.
State testing results for the most recent school year show a mixed picture. In third-grade math, a solid majority of students met the proficiency bar. In fourth-grade math, the data was suppressed, meaning the school did not report that result publicly, so no conclusion can be drawn for that grade. Fifth-grade math was a soft spot, with well under a third of students scoring proficient. In English language arts, third and fourth graders each came in just under the halfway mark, while fifth graders saw a noticeable drop, with fewer than a third proficient. Fifth-grade science results were also low. Taken together, the school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint among districts in Yuma County, but the pattern is uneven by grade and subject, and a parent may want to ask the school how it supports students who are not yet on grade level, particularly in the upper elementary years.
Because O C Johnson ends at fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. That is not a weakness, just a reflection of the grade band. Similarly, the school does not offer high-school-level programs such as Advanced Placement, career and technical education pathways, or dual-credit courses, because those are not part of an elementary school’s charter. The absence of those offerings is expected at this level. A parent looking for information on course access, discipline rates, or chronic absenteeism will find that those data were not available in the records reviewed, so a direct conversation with the district office would be the best next step. The district itself, Yuma Elementary District, appears to have made no recent major changes that would be visible to a prospective family; the district brief found little to report.
The housing market in the area around the school is relatively accessible compared to the broader state and national benchmarks. Home values are below the Arizona average, and rents are also lower, which keeps the cost of living more manageable for families. For a parent considering a move into the attendance zone, the housing costs are a practical advantage.
O C Johnson School fits a family looking for a small, neighborhood elementary school in a midsized desert city with a strong agricultural and military character. The academic picture is mixed: early elementary math looks like a relative strength, while upper-elementary reading and science are areas where the school’s results trail the district’s midpoint. The absence of several key data points—economic need, special education, English learner counts, and discipline metrics—means a parent should plan to visit the school and ask about those topics directly before making a decision.
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